Epic Collapse: Bye-Bye Sharks? Or can they recover?

By IBT Staff Reporter On 05/19/11 AT 1:53 PM

The San Jose Sharks imploded on Wednesday night, heading towards playoff purgatory for yet another season, now in a 0-2 hole against the Vancouver Canucks. Is this the last we will see of the Sharks or can they recover after yet another third period collapse?

You lose 7-3, not many people play well, Logan Couture said after the Game 2 loss. It's embarrassing. That's the only word that comes to mind about tonight.

Couture and Patrick Marleau were some of the only Sharks that actually contributed when it counted, scoring a goal each in the first period.

The trouble for the Sharks started late into the second period when Sharks' wing Ben Eager took a boarding penalty by crashing into Canuck's Daniel Sedin.

Ben Eager's hit, it started a bit of a frustration level on our team, Shark's coach Todd McLellan said about the Eager penalty. We didn't handle it very well. It obviously grew from there. We lost composure, we were frustrated.

Losing their composure is exactly what happened as the Sharks, who committed 9 penalties in the third period, including 4 by Eager which paved the way for Vancouver to score 2 power-play goals and put the game away.

The Sharks now face overwhelming odds in order to recover and come back in the series. Teams down 0-2 in a series eventually lose 87% of the time and the Sharks, who have been in this exact scenario 8 previous times, have never come back.

The only good news for the Sharks the series is moving to San Jose, where they will have home-ice advantage and the support of their fan base. Winning both Games 3 and 4 will be critical for the Sharks if they have any hope of recovering in the series and their quest to win their first Stanley Cup.

Otherwise, the Sharks can expect another year of hearing yet again about their playoff failures.